What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Grab a coffee? Take a shower? If you’re like many, you head straight for the shower, hoping that the water hitting your skin will wake you up. But what’s your temperature preference for a morning shower? Do you crave the flow of warm water against your skin or adjust the dial so cooler water hits you? And why does it matter?
According to some studies, the temperature of the water that strikes your body could change how your body burns fat. According to research, temperature affects your body’s fat-burning and fat-storage mechanisms in subtle ways. Let’s look at what science shows, so far, about how temperature affects fat burning and fat storage.
The Tale of Two Fats: Brown and White Adipose Tissue
Let’s start by reviewing the two main types of fat you carry on your body. You’re probably familiar with white adipose tissue (WAT). This is the superficial type of fat that you can pinch between your fingers. This type of fat clusters in strategic places like your hips, thighs, and tummy. It also includes visceral fat, a deeper kind of fat that deposits deeper in your abdominal cavity and around organs. When you gain weight, you store most of the extra calories as white adipose tissue.
But there’s another type of fat that’s maybe not on your radar. It’s brown adipose tissue (BAT) What distinguishes BAT from WAT, the storage fat, the metabolic activity of each tissue. BAT, a tissue that has more energy-producing mitochondria, is metabolically active and generates heat through a process called thermogenesis. Its abundance of energy-producing mitochondria gives it its distinctive brown color.
In fact, brown fat is developed to help babies stay warm in cold temperatures. That’s why brown fat is more abundant in babies. While adults have less of this metabolically active fat, we retain small amounts of brown fat between the shoulder blades, around the neck, and on the spine. The key is how to turn it on, so it burns calories and releases more heat. That’s where your morning shower could be of use. (other than to keep you clean)
Cold Exposure: A Metabolic Trigger
When you step into a cold shower, several things happen that affect your body’s metabolism and fat-burning capabilities:
- Activation of brown fat tissue to generate heat. The physical act of shivering produces heat and burns calories.
- Increased metabolic rate to maintain core body temperature
- Release of norepinephrine, a hormone that promotes fat breakdown
- Enhanced insulin sensitivity in muscle tissue
Scientific Evidence: What Research Tells Us about Cold Temperatures and Fat Burning
So, what does science say about cold exposure and fat burning? A 2019 study published in the journal Cell Metabolism showed that exposing your body to cold temperatures turns on fat-burning brown fat. Cold temperatures also improve insulin sensitivity, promoting better metabolic health.
Another study published in Journal of Clinical Investigation found that participants who spent time in the cold for 10 days gained a greater ability to activate brown fat and its calorie-burning prowess. So, taking regular cold showers could help your brown fat work harder, giving a potential fat loss advantage.
The benefits aren’t limited to cold showers either. Spending time outdoors in the winter or dialing back the temperature in your home to 66 degrees F. or lower offers similar benefits, based on some studies. The key is to spend more time outside the warmth of a well-heated home and let your body experience cold temperatures.
Important Considerations and Safety
If you’re eager to try cold showers for your metabolic health and for the potential fat-burning boost, do it safely. The ideal shower temperature for stimulating fat burning is between 60-68°F (15-20°C). If you have medical issues, like hypertension or cardiovascular disease, talk to your doctor before dialing back the temperature of your shower. And know that changing your shower temperature isn’t a magical formula for weight loss. Regular exercise, a healthy diet, and portion control for weight control has more science behind it.
To harness the fat-burning benefits of temperature exposure, consider these evidence-based strategies:
- Start at a comfortable temperature and gradually reduce it as your body adapts to the shock of cold showers.
- Begin with a warm shower and add 30-60 seconds of cold exposure at the end of your showers. Gradually increase the amount of time you expose your body to cold.
- Explore contrast showering where you alternate between warm and cold water in the same session.
Explore and find a strategy that works for you.
Downsides of Cold Showers
Although you might be intrigued by the fat-burning benefits of cold showers, jumping into a cold shower isn’t for everyone. If you have medical conditions, like hypertension, cardiovascular disease, or asthma, talk to your physician before dialing back the temperature of your shower. Depending on your personal preference, you might also find cold showers to be uncomfortable, creating a mental barrier to taking one. So, be aware of the downsides too.
Conclusion
While taking a cold shower every morning won’t make it possible to eat a pint of ice cream daily and not gain weight, the subtle extra fat burning you get from activating brown fat is beneficial for your metabolic health. Plus, it’ll help you burn a few extra calories. Ensure that it’s part of a holistic approach to managing your metabolic health and weight.
If you like cold showers, all the better! And if you hate them, there’s another alternative. Studies show that high-intensity exercise increases production of irisin, a hormone-like protein that turns on brown fat. So, next time it’s chilly outside or you lower the temperature of your shower and shiver a bit, think how your body might be working hard to use that brown fat!
References:
- Hollstein T, Vinales K, Chen KY, Cypess AM, Basolo A, Schlögl M, Krakoff J, Piaggi P. Reduced brown adipose tissue activity during cold exposure is a metabolic feature of the human thrifty phenotype. Metabolism. 2021 Apr;117:154709. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2021.154709. Epub 2021 Jan 18. PMID: 33476636; PMCID: PMC7956243.
- A.J.J. van der Lans et al. (2013). Cold acclimation recruits human brown fat and increases nonshivering thermogenesis. The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
- M. Cypess, M.D., Ph.D. et al. (2009). Identification and importance of brown adipose tissue in adult humans. The New England Journal of Medicine.
- van, Joris Hoeks, Boudewijn Brans, Guy H.E.J Vijgen, Mariëlle G.W Visser, Maarten J Vosselman, Jan Hansen, et al. “Cold Acclimation Recruits Human Brown Fat and Increases Nonshivering Thermogenesis.” Journal of Clinical Investigation 123, no. 8 (July 14, 2013): 3395–3403. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci68993.
- Cohen P, Spiegelman BM. Brown and Beige Fat: Molecular Parts of a Thermogenic Machine. Diabetes. 2015;64(7):2346-2351. doi:https://doi.org/10.2337/db15-0318.
- Jedrychowski MP, Wrann CD, Paulo JA, Gerber KK, Szpyt J, Robinson MM, Nair KS, Gygi SP, Spiegelman BM. Detection and Quantitation of Circulating Human Irisin by Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Cell Metab. 2015 Oct 6;22(4):734-740. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2015.08.001. Epub 2015 Aug 13. PMID: 26278051; PMCID: PMC4802359.
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